Food shields or sneeze guards to help prevent cross contamination and provide customers with a secure sense that the food on display is protected are well known in the art. These assemblies typically comprise an upright or elongated support member, some separate assembly for supporting one or more sneeze guard panels, and apparatus for moving the sneeze guard along or around the elongated support member(s).
Designing and assembling sneeze guards can be complicated since dimensions, load factors, code requirements, and aesthetics converge to present brackets which are labor and component intensive. Often sneeze guards will have many component parts and require several tools for assembly. Moreover, with current technology, installing sneeze guards or the positional adjustment of an assembled sneeze guard requires more than one person and is time consuming.
Sneeze guards for food display and service must meet local health department regulations for installation and maintenance. These local regulations are often shaped by findings from the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) to standardize sanitation and food safety requirements. The NSF has conducted testing that shows even when sneeze guard panels are installed, these installations often are deficient in protecting displayed food from particles expelled by the forces of a sneeze of cough. Human sneeze forces have been measured at a high of 4.5 meters per second, or 10 miles per hour. That's comparable to the velocity of air expelled by coughing—and a violent cough can push up a larger volume of air, which supplies even more force. Expectorate projected by a sneeze or cough may include bacterial infections, such as bronchiectasis, bacterial pneumonia, pertussis, sinusitis, or Mycobacterium bovis (tuberculosis).
Many ready to assemble sneeze guards and existing sneeze guards utilize location dependent uprights or support members that multiply the effort needed to design and assemble the sneeze guard components and that intensify the complexity of the process. Presently, most sneeze guards are installed by the seller because of the complexity of assembling. Thus, many sneeze guards are handled fully or most fully assembled which presents bulky cargo that takes up considerable amount of space and that is difficult to transport.
Often, new or existing sneeze guards present one to two inch gaps between elongated support and/or partition posts and sneeze guard panels. It is not uncommon, therefore, for adjacent sneeze guard panels to likewise have gaps between the panels exposing a portion of the protected food on display below the panels. These gaps allow expectorate to reach the displayed food, despite the presence of sneeze guard assemblies. There is a need for a simple, inexpensive and easily adaptable sneeze guard filler bracketing assembly to close such sneeze guard assembly and/or sneeze guard panel gaps.
Additionally, when one part of a piece of sneeze guard assembly is damaged, often the entire product must be returned instead of the damaged part. For example, when an upright or support member fails or is defective, often the entire sneeze guard assembly must be replaced. Similarly, any sneeze guard filler bracketing assembly should be easily replaceable, without requiring extensive disassembly or replacement of the underlying sneeze guard supports and/or assembly.
Finally, the sneeze guards need to be supported by adequate and aesthetically pleasing attachment components for securing sneeze guard panels to one or more fixed support structures. Any sneeze guard filler bracketing assembly necessarily likewise needs to provide adequate and aesthetically pleasing components for enhancing the security of the overall sneeze guard assembly.